Six candidates vie for WHO director general

Three surprise candidates, all from Europe, entered the race Friday to succeed Margaret Chan at the helm of the World Health Organization when she steps down next year.

Italian WHO official Flavia Bustreo, former Hungarian Health Minister Miklós Szócska and British U.N. adviser David Nabarro entered the contest for the €214,000-a-year job.

Nabarro is a U.N. special advisor on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. He was previously appointed U.N. special envoy on Ebola in 2014, a time when the WHO came under fire for its slow response to the deadly outbreak — a crisis that prompted an ongoing reform of its handling of emergencies.

Bustreo has experience in child and women’s health, having been at the WHO for several years, most recently serving as assistant director general for family, womens' and children’s health at the agency since 2010. She’s also served as a deputy and director for maternal and children's health. Bustreo is a medical doctor with a masters in communicable diseases.

The third surprise candidate is Hungary's Szócska, a former health minister between 2010 and 2014. He graduated from the Semmelweis University of Medicine in 1989. Soon after, he created Health Services Management Training Centre, according to a bio posted on the OECD website.

The deadline to submit candidates was September 22. The director general is WHO’s chief technical and administrative officer and oversees the health body's international work.

Just three candidates had made their bid public before the deadline: Pakistan’s former Health Minister Sania Nishtar, Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom and France’s former Health and Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.

New rules for the election of the next director general aim to bring more transparency and fairness to the process. But a lot will still happen in closed-door meetings between country representatives, and plenty of political horse-trading is expected, just as with the election of the U.N. secretary general.

In January 2017, WHO’s executive board will draw up a shortlist with a maximum of five candidates. Executive board members will then interview these candidates and nominate up to three to go forward for consideration by the World Health Assembly in May 2017, when member countries will vote in a new WHO boss.

Previously, just one nomination was submitted by WHO’s Executive Board to the World Health Assembly, which then made the final appointment, effectively a rubber stamp.